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It has been revealed that Nintendo has blocked the release of the immensely popular The Binding of Isaac on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. The Binding of Isaac and Super Meat Boy designer Edmund McMillen has stated that the decision by Nintendo came “after a long internal debate”. Nintendo decided to block the game due to its “questionable religious content”.

“Attention: After a long internal debate Nintendo has decided NOT to allow the Binding of Isaac on the 3ds. :(”

“As many assumed the reasons were due to the games ‘questionable religious content’,” he added. “Thank GOD Steam exists!”

Okami is based on the Japanese religion Shinto. Issac is based on Christianity. The Japanese are much more lax when it comes to using their religion as a basis for stories in their popular culture and no one gets offended. The Christians get offended by the smallest percieved slight. It was smart of them to avoid an uneccesary squabble.

I haven’t heard of it, though it might turn out to be a nice game…and on Steam either more will buy it, or less will. More because everyone with a computer has access to Steam. Less, because most people on steam use it for the crappy FPS games…so it could go either way. Nintendo would have been a safe bet at nice sales.

Yeah, who are Nintendo to decide what games they put on their handheld? I want to play Uncharted on my Wii! I want to play Gears of War on my 3DS! Nintendo shouldn’t be able to decide what games we play on their console! It’s not like they made and distributed it or anything.

And it’s ignorant and selfish twats like you that remind me why maybe it’s a good thing that developers don’t listen to the fan base sometimes. Nintendo doesn’t have to bend over backwards to your every whim.

A) You hear more cuss words in a single day of high school than you do in an entire GTA game.

You see more blood in 10 minutes of a news broadcast.

You’re coming off as completely out of touch with the world. I suggest thinking before commenting next time. Then you wouldn’t come off as such an idiot.

B) Do you think it’s normal to run around and collect coins while punching bricks? How about throwing birds at random, sickly green pigs?

However, insulting something that actually exists, such as a current government or political party, is considered “inappropriate.” It’s not an issue with religion specifically; it’s an issue with any insult to current institutions. People are just too narrow-minded to realize that. They want to make an issue out of nothing.

I’d like to play this game, I like Team Meat works, but I knew from the beginning that this game was not coming for eShop. It could have turned into a bad market for Nintendo, especially with parents. Also, this game is not on PSN and LIVE, I don’t know why, but its not available in any other plataform than PC.

What about them being offensive to people who don’t believe in their bullshit? The world really needs to move away from religion, all it does is divide people and give them liscense to think they’re better than others because they’re “chosen”.

Not intolerant, just curious. Why do we have to be denied the game because they’re touchy about this crap. If you don’t like it don’t buy the game.

Like I stated above, I agree with Nintendo not releasing this game on the eshop, because they don’t need any bad press leading up to the launch of the Wii U. It’s purely good PR. Some christian might not buy a Wii U because Nintendo put this game on the eshop, which means Nintendo made fun of god, and are thereby evil. smh.

You’re being extremely ignorant. I’m not religious at ALL but at least I understand the purpose of religion both culturally and spritually. You’re acting exactly how you describe the religions you hate so much. You believe it should be released and that is the word of you! I don’t mind the game at all and I don’t find it offensive. But I totally understand how it could effect some sales if parents walked in on their 8 year old playing a game starring a naked baby killing things with tears of blood.

As a parent it is your responsibilty to monitor what your kids are watching and playing. I know this is on the eshop so that would make it a little harder, but still that’s the parents’ responsibilty not Nintendos’

It doesn’t?
Wow, now that makes more sense, but why Nintendo don’t make a ESRB for that game? In any case they can do the same thing they did with the demos of Resident Evil and Metal Gear, ask their age, that may keep away some kids.

There’s a parental filter on the 3DS. If you don’t want your ten year old playing a game like this, set the 3DS so it filters T and M rated games. I just did it to my niece’s 3DS yesterday, so I know it’s there. It’s really that simple. If there’s features you don’t want your kid using, don’t allow them.

Those of us who can play a T or M rated game shouldn’t have to go without because parents don’t want to have to watch what their spoiled little brat is doing.

I’m just not associated with religion. Atheism, in my eyes, is a religion, against religion sort of (although, I know, the meaning on Atheism is “without god.”) There’s no reason to rant on to people on why religion should be abolished. Although I don’t agree with many, many, things in many religions there are some positive sides. People are brought up with that at birth, and yes, it is offensive to religious people if they are told to stop believing the bull shit that they believe in. Religion is just to describe things, and to have certain morals. It’s going to take hundreds of thousands of years for people to stop believing or hoping for things, so hop off the whole “fairy tale” thing. Although there is no factual evidence, for lets say, the Bible, hey, there could be something up there. We don’t know as humans. As a human, I have resided in believing scientific fact. Do atheists a favor and stop protesting atheism.

That’s funny considering people throw around the words “gay,” “faggot,” “fag,” “queer,” and “homo” on this very website multiple times a day like the words mean nothing. Homophobia isn’t offensive, I guess. But if someone dare tries to say something about religion, “OH NO!!! Don’t say something that has started several wars, has had countless murders committed in it’s name, etc. ruins everything!”

If you ignore people who call others gay it’ll die out, since it’s an insult (it hinges on what others feel). This is exactly the same; if religious people ignore atheists, they’ll stop insulting religion, and continue on with your life.

If you really are an atheist (as in, believe in atheism 100%), you’d find no need to insult other religions OR be “curious” about them. To not believe in anything, you have to exclude all other options; curiosity means you don’t know about the subject at hand.

If you’re a real atheist and are at peace with your decision, you’d go on with your life with no inclination to prove yourself.

I’m an atheist, and I totally acknowledge the beliefs of other religions. I grew up a devout Catholic until I was about 14, when I realized that it didn’t really make sense to me. JUST AS Religious people don’t make sense of Atheism. Its fine, its just a way of living life. It’s what makes you happy. I have plenty of religious friends, and believe me, I hate it when people, religious or not, use their religion to prove arguments. Religion will never die down, it carries on through tradition and is used all over the world. We should just accept each other’s thoughts and feelings and discuss them, not debate them. Living in peace should be everyone’s number one priority, not bashing other people’s beliefs.

As one of Nintendo’s politics, they can’t relase any material that is disrespectful to any groups. If you weren’t aware of this when you bought your 3DS thats your problem. There is anything wrong that.

Thats exactly it. Thank you lol. With SMT, the parent knows what they’re getting into when they see the rating. With Isaac, they’d have no way of knowing and, as a once 8 year old boy, I would totally take advantage.

Question though, Why can’t they just add an ESRB? Is it not that simple?

Not really. It’s actually a difficult process. When you you look at it, it can be argued that this game contains content that merits it getting an AO rating…which NEITHER company dares to put such a rated game on their system

It’s not like that. We are talking about a Company, not about law and government. There’s no law saying you can’t play games with questionable religious content (yet, because THIS would be a problem) It’s just Nintendo saying they won’t support something with that content for their online store on 3DS. They are a company they have to worry about their image, especially talking about a system that most owners are +10 or under.

The fact that people are actually sticking up for Nintendo sickens me. This isn’t the 90’s anymore. Being “moral” about this is not something that should be championed, but condemned. Why should Nintendo have to decide this, and not the consumer? Do people who like playing more mature games on their Nintendo consoles not get a say? This was such a stupid decision on their part…

Because the consumer is inherently dumb, and every company knows this. That’s why we’re always given what we want so that by the time something happens that we don’t like, we won’t do anything about it.

I like Nintendo a lot, but this isn’t cool, it is not with this attitude (blocking games) that the company will be better. The game contents is not a problem for Nintendo, they should Launch every type of content, let the gamers decide what to but or not. Wake up Nintendo….

That is in my opinion a good reason to question Nintendo why blocked. It’s clear to me that this game has a sarcastic vision of religions (very good by the way) but blocking the game Nintendo assume a position that in my opinion brings me a question: Is it time to block Nintendo as my favorite game plataform?

No because that’s a stupid idea. You shouldn’t drop a company just because of one game. We never got Mother 3 in America but I got over it and moved on. Why can’t other people when it comes to scenarios like this?

I had no interest in playing this game but I think it’s bullshit it’s not being released. Most games have questionable content, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be released. I mean, the Pokemon series is about a world where animal fighting is this okay, everyday thing. I would say that’s questionable content. It could lead to a kid fighting their dog and cat in battle, after all.

It’s up to each player to decide what’s right for them. For example, I like shooting things in the face. Other might not like that. So I would buy something like Resident Evil, while they wouldn’t. Those who would be offended by this likely wouldn’t be looking at an M rated game. Much less buy one without looking into it first.

And, honestly, nothing is better than some old fashion controversy. People get offended, FOX News rants about it for a month. CNN and MSNBC covers it for day, etc. It puts Nintendo in the news. At the end of the day, all press is good press.

I kind of understand their point. Unlike Steam, Nintendo systems are closed platforms. Anyone remember the whole issue of the Islamic chant in Ocarina of Time in the Fire Temple? They were asked to removed that. The Binding of Isaac takes a currently existing religion into question, which is different from a fictional religion from Dead Space. If it was a fictional religion, then I think this game would have been released.

This game was meant to be played on a portable system…
A mother receives a message **from God** to kill her baby. She is possessed, tries to kill him, he flees and goes through many dungeons of his basement. Banned.

OK, let’s study this with a different angle:

A mother receives a message from **her neighbor** to kill her baby, or something bad will happen. She has no choice, she tries to kill him, he flees and goes thorugh many dungeons of his basement. You simply rate this game “M” and allow it. Meant for mature audience, that’s all! The game is cartoonish, the plot is just stupid, you don’t care, because you play this game for the gameplay.

It’s because it’s based off a real religion. If it was the message from a neighbor like you said, then they would’ve approved it. Nintendo has experience these kinds of things, mainly with the Islamic chant in Ocarina of Time on the N64.

I can understand Nintendo’s move. But it still pisses me off. I haven’t played this game so I don’t know how religiously questionable it is and what religion is parodies but it is still just a game at the end of the day. It makes me upset when others personal views prevent stuff like this. If you don’t like don’t buy it. I have no issue with religion but if your trying to use it as an excuse as to why we can’t have a game available to purchase on a system we love, that is where I am annoyed.

Looks like this proves that we will be under control. *sigh* I’ll wait for the other consoles before i get another nintendo system. If people find that religous stuff offensive then don’t play the game. Hate how nintendo just picks out whatever they don’t want. So much for “Freedom of developers” I don’t trust these guys now

Don’t blame Nintendo for this, it’s not their fault. It’s not like they are offended by the game themselves they just don’t want backlash from the people who believe this religion. They are kinda in a lose lose situation. They can lose buyers by putting this game on their system and they can lose buyers from not doing it like you are considering. It would be a bigger risk if they did put it on though sadly. I’m as upset as you but like I said Nintendo is kinda backed into a corner on this and they had to make the least damaging choice.